Question I get at every first phone call: “How long should I block out on the day?” The duration of a provisional reception depends mostly on the property typology, but also on the quality of the build, the availability of technical documents, and the cooperation of the contractor. The honest answer fits in a table, but it deserves some context to avoid underestimations that get paid for in rushed signatures.
The real time count by typology
Across 612 provisional receptions carried out between 2021 and 2026 in my practice, here are the averages observed:
- Studio / 1-bed: 1h30 to 2h15
- 2-bed / 3-bed apartment: 1h45 to 2h30
- Terraced house (2 façades): 2h45 to 3h30
- Semi-detached (3 façades): 3h30 to 4h15
- Detached (4 façades): 4h30 to 5h30
- Villa with basement and fitted attic: 5h30 to 7h
These figures include drafting the minutes on site but exclude travel and cold re-reading (about 1h extra, billed separately). For a 4-façade house, I always block a full half-day — 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. — never a short slot like “5 p.m. to 7 p.m.” Minutes signed under time pressure are sloppy minutes, and therefore legally fragile.
The phases that take the most time
Three zones eat up 60% of the stopwatch on their own: the fitted kitchen (35 minutes of functional tests), the main bathroom (25 minutes, more with bathtub and walk-in shower), and the electrical panel (20 minutes of circuit checking, RGIE verification, identification of breakers). Where I save time is on the dry rooms (bedrooms, hallways), which can be processed in 8 to 12 minutes each.
The typical hourly breakdown for a 4-façade house in my practice:
- Outside tour (roof, façades, terrace, gutters): 45 min
- Basement and utilities (boiler, ventilation, electrical panel): 50 min
- Ground floor (kitchen, lounge, sanitary): 90 min
- Upper floors (bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways): 60 min
- Attic and inner roof: 30 min
- Drafting minutes and on-site re-reading: 45 min
Total: 5h20. I always advise 30 minutes of slack on top, just in case.
Timed case: Wavre, March 2026
A client asked me for a detailed account after our reception of a 4-façade house of 220 m². Here are the raw figures: arrival 9:00 a.m., departure 2:45 p.m., that is 5h45 on site. We identified 23 reservations including 2 major (structural crack in basement, infiltration at chimney passage). Drafting the minutes took 50 minutes on site. Had the client done the reception alone in 1h30 as initially planned by the contractor, she would probably have missed the two major reservations — a risk quantified between €8,000 and €14,000 in repairs at her expense.
What stretches everything
Four factors account for 80% of the overruns observed in my files:
- Bad weather (impossible to inspect roof or wet terrace)
- Absent or rushed contractor who wants to cut the visit short
- Cascading defects: a single major defect can add 45 min of discussion
- Missing technical documents (RGIE, CERGA, EPC, ten-year liability certificate)
If the contractor arrives without their technical documents, I systematically suspend reception. No minutes signed in such conditions are legally solid. This is also what Belgian case law recommends — see the text of the Breyne Law on ejustice.just.fgov.be for the legal framework of contradictory reception.
Pitfalls to avoid
- Do not accept a reception scheduled at the end of the day (insufficient light)
- Refuse “grouped” visits with other lots of the same developer
- Beware of contractors announcing “it’ll take 1h, we’ll sign quickly”
- Plan a light meal beforehand: a reception is not done on an empty mental tank
What next?
If you want to secure your reception planning, get in touch with my practice ahead of time to validate the necessary duration based on your typology. The page Provisional reception expert details the full methodology, or request a free quote specifying the habitable area and number of rooms.